Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch says fired FBI Director James Comey didn't raise any concerns when she directed him in 2015 to label the bureau's probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server a "matter" as opposed to an "investigation."

But, nearly two years later, Comey gave a different recollection of events during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling lawmakers that Lynch's directive "confused and concerned" him.

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Lynch drew attention to Comey's apparent conflicting remarks during an NBC News interview set to air in full Monday night.

"It was a meeting like any other that we had had where we talked about the issues. We had a full and open discussion about it and concerns were not raised," Lynch said.

Lynch said the sit-down took place in the early fall of 2015.

Ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch says James Comey said one thing to her, and another to Congress. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

"This was a very sensitive investigation," Lynch, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said of the Clinton email inquiry. "And the issue when he and I sat down at that time … was whether or not we were ready as a department to confirm that an investigation was going on."

After getting fired by President Trump last June, Comey went before the Senate Intelligence Committee and said Lynch's orders about the Clinton probe gave him a "queasy feeling."

"At one point, the attorney general had directed me not to call it an investigation, but instead call it a matter, which confused and concerned me," Comey told lawmakers at the time, adding that the Justice Department's refusal to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into Clinton's emails "was getting to a place where it started to look silly because the campaign were talking about interacting with FBI."

After friends notified her of Comey's testimony, Lynch said her first reaction was: "What is the issue here?"

Comey went before the Senate Intelligence Committee last June and said Lynch's orders about the Clinton probe gave him a "queasy feeling." (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

"We typically do not confirm or deny investigations into anything, with rare exceptions," Lynch said.

Comey came under serious criticism after he announced 11 days before the 2016 election that the FBI had reopened its investigation into Clinton's emails. Critics say the announcement likely swayed the vote in Trump's favor.

Lynch's remarks about Comey comes as he is about to drop a book about his FBI career and the abrupt end it came to.